There are two groups of students going through fitness programs. One group is competitive, doing things individually and being compared to one another. The other group is cooperative, doing exercises in groups and only ever comparing themselves to their past performance.
You are in the first group, the competitive group. You go through a series of exercises designed to test your physical capabilities, and then you go through six weeks later on and see the progress that you’ve made. And you have made progress. But you’ve spent six weeks of this exercise program being compared to the best athletes in your group. You’ve improved your fitness level. You’ve improved your results, but being told time and time again about people with better performance starts to make you feel defeated.
The other group, the cooperative group of students, does very similar exercises and they also improve. But, instead of being compared to the best athletes, they only ever compare their current results to their past results. This group improves their fitness level, and they increase their athletic self-concept. They’re not only more athletic, but they now think of themselves as more capable athletes.
It seems natural that self-concept (how you think of your inherent ability for a specific discipline) and performance should be the same. We should only think we’re good if we are good. But a lot of the time that is not the case. Being good at something is always relative. A 9-year-old might say they are good at basketball because they are better than their peers. Compared to an adult though the 9-year-old is terrible. How capable you think you are, depends on the context into which you are putting your results.
In this study, both of the student groups are improving their performance in the short term, but only one group is improving their perception of themselves. Only one group thinks that they are more capable as athletes.
Your competitive group is improving performance, but other than the top few students, everyone is feeling more defeated. Even though you know you are fitter than you were before; you think you are less of an athlete. You see yourself as less and less of an athletic person because you are aware that even though you have improved, you are still not doing as well as some of the other students. As time goes by, you may even stop applying yourself to physical pursuits because you get the idea in your head that no matter what you do some people will always be better. Any positive effects you gained in the short program are less likely to last.
The other group completed similar exercises and saw similar improvements in their results. The difference is that their self-concepts were improved as well. Since they were focusing on their performance changing, and not comparing themselves to others, they felt happy with their results, instead of feeling defeated. They noticed their results improving and thought “I’m getting better at this!” which leads to confidence that they are in fact better. In the long term, they are more likely to maintain and improve their results.
When you start to believe you are more capable, you start to do better, which leads you to believe that you are more capable, which leads you to do better. The same applies in reverse. There is a reciprocal effect on your self-concept and your performance. Whether your self-concept is high or low, it will contribute to your future performance. And you future performance will help your future self-concept. So, when you are training it is important to not only focus on improving your performance, but also on maintaining and improving your self-concept.
The idea that improving your self-concept is important naturally leads to the thought that “Oh, we just need to surround ourselves with people who aren’t as good as us.” Being able to compare yourself to others from a position of apparent superiority may leave you with a higher self-concept, but it is a precarious place to be. When you inevitably encounter a challenge, whether it is stronger competition or an off day, your confidence will come crashing down. It is a much better strategy to focus on things that you can control, like your preparation, and your progress.
Sports Psychologist Dr. Kristin Keim echoes this idea, “It’s healthy to be competitive, but one’s goals should never be about beating a particular person/ opponent. I’ve seen this in the past, and yes, it might be used as fuel for one race, but it will not lead to an upward trajectory and a consistent season. Athletes should focus more on the process …. you can learn from past performances, but I often say that after reflection athletes need to shift their focus to the now. Focus their energy on what they can do right now to be their best in sport and life.”
Dr. Keim teaches her clients to reflect on the success’ and challenges of a race or competition no matter the result. If you performed above expectations, there are still things that you can improve, and if you performed below expectations, there are still things you did well. Becoming the best versions of yourself requires learning from results no matter if they are good or bad.
Checking in with the success you had from a less than ideal outcome and the challenges you had in a good outcome also allows you to maintain a realistic self-concept. As does keeping a focus on your performance and things within your control. You won’t get too down on yourself, or irrationally high on yourself either.
The development of performance tracking technology like Fitbit, Garmin, and others make it more and more tempting to focus on competition and comparisons. Tracking tools in combination with sites like Strava allow you to turn your evening bike ride into a competition, as you try to beat the times of people who have taken the same route. Performance tracking technologies help benchmark and improve your performance, but for the recreational athlete, they can end up taking away from the reason you began training in the first place.
Instead of going out for a ride because you enjoy it, you may be more focused on getting the best time on a route. You will find yourself being motivated to move up the online list of people who have done the same route. Instead of a few hours enjoying the ride, your attention is on you power output, your speed, your heart rate. Something that you enjoy, the act of riding, now takes a backseat to all the thinking and worrying you are doing about the metrics. In simpler terms, you aren’t as present as you were before.
These tools can add to your performance, but with the incentive to compete and compare, they can lead you down a path of insecurity. They can take you away from the internal motivation you had initially, and lead you to feel less enthusiastic about your sport.
When you want to improve any of your abilities in the long term, it is important to not only improve your abilities, but also to improve your view of yourself as an athlete, an academic, a writer, or whatever the pursuit may be. This means paying attention to how your training affects your self-concept. There is a time to compare your results to the results of others. Ignorance is not a long-term plan for success. But when you are comparing your results with the results of others, or thinking competitively, it is hard to know if you are making a fair comparison. We aren’t able to see the hours someone else has practiced, or how they were feeling on the day of the event.
Since we are not participating in a study, you do not need to constantly compare yourself to others around you. You have the opportunity to choose what context you put your performance in. As you set out to achieve things, you can choose to put your results into a context of practice and improvement, instead of competitiveness. You can choose to be more aware of your self-concept, by noticing when you feel defeated by the prospect of something that you are trying to accomplish and changing your point of view to start feeling more confident, more satisfied, and more motivated to continue practicing and improving in the long-term.
– Thanks to Ben Foster and Dr. Kristin Keim for their help.
Sources:
- Herbert W. Marsh and Rhonda G. Craven. Reciprocal Effects of Self-Concept and Performance from a Multidimensional Perspective.
- Herbert W. Marsh and Naida D. Peart. Competitive and Cooperative Physical Fitness Training Programs for Girls: Effects on Physical Fitness and Multidimensional Self-concepts
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